The present invention relates to a wheel of a baby walking cart, and particularly to one which can slow down automatically when a baby walks too fast on the walking cart; thus, the baby is protected from falling over or colliding with objects too hard.
Walking carts are used for helping little children to learn to walk, and the wheels of the carts are usually provided with a automatical brake device for stopping the walking carts when the little children have been walking too fast.
Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, a conventional wheel for a baby walking cart has a support member 10, an elastic member 20, a slide member 30 and two wheel parts 40.
The support member 10 is fitted to the lower part of a walking cart, and has an elongated guide hole 101, an axle 102, two engaging protrusions 103 and. a receiving hole 104. The engaging protrusions 103 stick out from two sides of the support member 10. The receiving hole 104 is formed at a front portion of the support member 10, and has a confining wall (not numbered).
The wheel parts 40 each has engaging teeth 401 spaced apart on an inner circular surface. And, the slide member 30 has an U shape, and the open end portions each has a through hole 301.
The wheel parts 40 are disposed on two sides of the support member 10 with the axle 102 being passed through the central holes of the wheel parts 40, the through holes 301 of the slide member 30 and the elongated hole 101 of the support member 10; the elastic member 20 is received in the receiving hole 104, and confined between the confining wall (FIG. 6) and the front end of the side member 30 for biasing the sliding member 30 as well as the wheel parts 40 to a front end.
When a baby walks along on the walking cart, the elastic member 20 will act against a force, which results from the forward movement of the cart, and push the slide member 30 as well as the wheel parts 40 rearwards. When the baby walks along too fast on the cart, the force resulting from the forward movement of the cart to push the wheel parts 40 rearwards will be greater than the forward biasing force of the elastic member 20, and consequently the wheel parts 40 will be forced to move to rear part of the support member 10 to engage the engaging protrusions 103 from the engaging teeth 401; thus, the walking cart is stopped to prevent the cart from hitting objects too hard.
However, the wheel with automatical brake is found to have a drawback that it will be stopped too abruptly, and the abrupt stop will give a shock to the baby on the cart. And, the cart might even fill over to make the baby get hurt.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a wheel for a baby walking cart, which will slow down automatically but won""t stop abruptly when a baby has been walking too fast on the cart.
The wheel for a baby walking cart of the present invention includes a support member, two wheel members, a tube-shaped slide member and an elastic member.
The support member is connected to a lower part of the walking cart, and has an elongated hole. The wheel members are disposed on a respective side of the support member, and turnable on axle passed through the elongated hole.
The tube-shaped slide member is movably disposed in the elongated hole of the support member with the axle being passed therethrough. The elastic member is connected to a rear end of the elongated hole, and a rear part of the slide member from two ends for biasing the slide member as well as the wheel members towards a front end of the elongated hole.
Furthermore, wavy slowing-down portions are formed on an inner circular surface of each of the wheel members; the elastic member acts against a force resulting from a forward movement of the walking cart to force the wheel members to move rearwards for keeping the wavy slowing-down portions of the wheel members off slowing-down rods on two sides of the support member when the walking cart moves along; the force moving the wheel members towards the rear end of the elongated hole when the walking cart moves along too fast, makes the wavy slowing-down portions contact the slowing-down rods of the support member to slow down the walking cart.
Because of the shape of the wavy slowing-down portions, the walking cart can be slowed down gradually to not give a shock to the baby walking with the cart when the cart is moved along too fast.